Persecution Alert

Deputy Health Minister calls off plans to publish a ‘list of gays’

01 March 2017

Deputy Health Minister Hamisi Kigwangall announced that Tanzania has backed out of its plan to publish a list of names of gay people, saying this would "destroy evidence". He had earlier called a press conference to announce his plans to publicise the list.

"We cancelled the press conference. We are not going to announce the names of (LGBTs) who publicly market themselves for technical reasons," he wrote on Twitter.

"For strategic reasons and to avoid destroying evidence we will deal with this issue differently and will keep you informed at every step."

He also said that releasing the names would be akin to "freeing a devil in a bottle."